Long-Term Agreement (LTA) for Individual Consultant as Mental Health and Psychosocial Support

Long-Term Agreement (LTA) for Individual Consultant as Mental Health and Psychosocial Support

Background/Rationale

Mental health is fundamental to every child’s well-being and development, shaping their ability to learn, form relationships, participate in society and realize their full potential. It is integral to the achievement of SDG 3 and the wider Sustainable Development Goals.

Mental health and psychosocial support is an increasingly important and evolving priority for UNICEF across regions and countries. UNICEF works to promote the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents, while also supporting parents and caregivers to provide nurturing and supportive environments that enable children to thrive and develop throughout childhood and adolescence.

This Long-Term Arrangement for Services will provide UNICEF with a pool of individual consultants who can support MHPSS related areas of work, across the different levels of the organization and across continents. The arrangement will enable teams to rapidly identify and engage formally vetted specialists through TMS, REACH and CONNECT, reducing repeated recruitment processes while improving the consistency, quality and timeliness of technical support. It also creates a mechanism to maintain shared learning through communities of practice, case studies, knowledge products, and routine communication channels. By securing this specialised expertise, UNICEF MHPSS team can integrate mental health more consistently across programmes, improve the quality of evidence used for decision making, and strengthen the organisation’s ability to anticipate and respond to emerging public concerns.

Selected consultants will be eligible for a long-term agreement contract to provide on-demand technical support to UNICEF Centers of Excellence (CoE), Regional Offices and COs and to other UN agencies. LTASs are non-binding arrangements that do not constitute a commitment to acquire a consultant’s services.

Purpose

The purpose of this Terms of Reference (ToR) is to establish LTASs with multiple rostered individual consultants that give UNICEF reliable access to specialised support in MHPSS. Consultants engaged through this mechanism will help UNICEF to further improve the efficient and rapid deployment of high-quality MHPSS professionals with experience in the area of mental health and psychosocial support. The arrangement ensures that CoE, RO and CO teams can draw on consistent expertise for high-quality system strengthening, MHPSS in emergencies and strategic global policy advocacy, and technical support as required.

Scope of Work

The individual consultant is required to apply their knowledge, international standards, best practices, and previous experience, supplemented by relevant data and studies, to each assignment. The LTA establishes a framework for engaging consultants; it does not imply that every consultant will undertake all activities listed below.

For each call-off assignment, UNICEF and the selected consultant will agree on a specific scope of work, including the applicable activities, deliverables, timeline, reporting and coordination arrangements, professional fees, travel requirements (where applicable), and safeguarding assessment and measures. The scope of each assignment will be tailored to the specific needs of UNICEF and the nature and complexity of the task.

In collaboration with relevant UNICEF teams, the consultant will provide support as requested and in accordance with the agreed scope of work for each assignment. The consultant may be requested to carry out the activities outlined below, as relevant to the specific assignment, as well as any other activities deemed necessary and agreed with UNICEF to successfully complete the task:

• MHPSS systems strengthening, policy, governance, financing and advocacy
• Programme design, implementation, quality assurance and scale-up across sectors
• Humanitarian MHPSS preparedness, response, recovery and coordination
• Evidence, research, measurement, monitoring, evaluation, data and learning
• Specialized and emerging MHPSS expertise and innovation, including digital/AI, suicide prevention, substance use and climate-related MHPSS

Responsibilities of the Consultant

• The consultant(s) will use their own equipment; laptops, software and other accessories that may be required for this task.
• The consultant(s) will not give the content/material or any part thereof to any third party without the written permission of UNICEF. All components will be the property of UNICEF, and the consultant will not share the same with anyone else.
• The consultant(s) will not put their own name or logo/emblem on the content / final product. The only organization branding will be UNICEF, if required.
• Individuals engaged under a consultancy will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.
• The selected candidate(s) is responsible for ensuring that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract.

Responsibilities of UNICEF

• UNICEF will provide all available details pertaining to the activity and the requirements.
• UNICEF will orient the consultant on UNICEF’s branding guidelines.
• UNICEF will provide access to specialized MHPSS tools deemed necessary by UNICEF to successfully complete the assignment.

Deliverables

Travel

Consultants may need to travel to UNICEF offices for on-site or in-country support. Consultants will need to make their travel arrangements and will be reimbursed for travel costs and subsistence allowance in line with and limited to those payable by UNICEF.

The payment of travel costs shall be limited to economy class air travel, regardless of the length of travel. Airfare and terminal expenses will be paid upon completion of each duty travel against the invoices.

Estimated Duration of LTA

The Long-Term Agreement will be for a duration of three years. The initial period would be for two years with an option for renewal for a subsequent year on the same rates, terms and conditions, subject to satisfactory performance evaluation and continuing need for the service. The services of the individual consultants selected under the LTAS would also be made available to other UN agencies, UNICEF Regional and Country offices.

Payment Schedule

The LTA to be signed will have a fixed fee rate reflecting deliverables and including daily fee for three years. However, UNICEF does not guarantee that any quantity of services will be purchased during the term of the LTA as this will depend on forthcoming requests.

The consultant is expected to provide a quotation for the services he/she will provide as part of the application.

Contracts Created Against The LTA

Whenever consultancy services are required, details of the services will be presented according to the availability of the LTA holder.

Upon receipt of confirmation of availability and interest in the assignment, a contract will be issued by GPD or requesting division